Evergreen pine trees can be quite beautiful, but they also shed their pines like crazy. Anyone who has at least one of these trees in their yard near rocks knows just how difficult the pines can be to get out.
There are numerous ways to deal with this problem, and it’s good to know what your options are.
Why Are Pine Needles so Hard to Remove?
Removing pine needles from rocks or rock gardens presents a unique challenge because they are so small.
The sheer size of these needles makes them very difficult to pick up by hand, and there are often too many of them to make doing this worthwhile anyway.
Pine needles are extremely thin, so they can be very tricky to get at when they are stuck in between rocks.
Methods of Removing Pine Needles from Rocks
If pine needles tend to accumulate between / on the rocks in your yard, there are a number of methods that you can use to remove them.
Some of these methods can be more or less effective than others depending on the situation. So, you’ll have to consider which one is best for you.
Leaf Blower
Using a leaf blower is definitely the best method for cleaning up pine needles from rocks. If you decide to do it this way, make sure that you aim the leaf blower at the pine needles towards the edge of the rocks so they blow out of them rather than deeper inside.
This might be a little bit tricky at first, but you should get the hang of it fairly quickly.
One of the best things about using a leaf blower for this is that you don’t need one that is very strong.
Pine needles are extremely small and lightweight, so you should be able to use a basic handheld leaf blower to get the job done without any problems.
A backpack leaf blower is definitely going to the most effective way to clean up your pine needles. These blowers are very powerful and will definitely be able to solve your problem within a matter of minutes.
If you are looking to buy such a device, you can check out my top recommendations in this article.
You will have to use your blower on a power setting that is strong enough to move the needles, but not strong enough to move your rocks.
Also, if you are dealing with a rock garden and you have plants growing there, try to use your blower on the lowest power setting. Otherwise the airflow can be strong enough to damage your plants!
While buying one of these just to get rid of pine needles might be overkill, don’t forget about the numerous other tasks they can be used for. Such as blowing fallen leaves (obviously), or blowing snow during winter.
Vacuum cleaner
Some people choose to use a vacuum cleaner instead of a leaf blower, though they are usually not quite as effective at this particular task. The main reason I avoid these is because they suck in a lot of sand and pebbles, which can damage your equipment.
That being said, if you think your device can handle it, or if there isn’t much sand around your rocks, you can give it a try.
Power Washer
Those who happen to own a power washer might find that this particular piece of equipment can also be effective in cleaning rocks. This is only a good option for people who want to get pine needles off the rocks and do not mind if they go underneath them.
Don’t try this if your rocks are small as they will be washed away too. Also, do not do this if you have plants growing in your rock garden – this powerful ray of water would be devastating for them!
A side benefit of using this method is that you can effectively take unsightly stains off your rocks within just seconds. However, this is definitely not the best method for completely removing pine needles or leaves from between rocks.
Use a Broom
When dealing with huge rocks, a simple broom can also be very helpful when you want to clean up the area.
You can sweep the needles to the ground to organize them in piles before picking them up with your hands.
This method can take a while if you have a lot of pine needles, so you should keep that in mind. Also, this only works if your rocks are big, and the gap between them is wide enough for your broom to fit in.
You also have the option of using a vacuum to pick up the needles once you have used the broom to dislodge them from in between the rocks.
Tape
You can also consider using pieces of tape to pick up groups of pine needles that are trapped in your rocks. Duct tape can be particularly helpful in this case. You can also use packaging tape, which tends to be very sticky and strong.
This is a good method if you only have a limited number of pine needles to contend with. Otherwise, using only tape to get all of the pine needles can be quite time consuming.
A lint roller (such as the kind that you use to remove pet hair from clothing and furniture) can also be useful for this purpose.
Simply move the roller back and forth over the pine needles until you need to peel back the adhesive material to reveal another layer.
This could take a while, but it is an effective method if your rock garden is well organized and you don’t want to mess it up.
Mop Them Up
A sticky mop can also be quite helpful for picking up stubborn pine needles. Once the mop is full, you will need to rinse the needles with water and gather them up in a bucket.
Next you can choose to throw the needles away or use them for other purposes. Again, this only works if you are dealing with huge rocks. Otherwise you’d just mop the rocks away too.
Use a Small Shovel
There is also the option of using a small garden shovel to collect the pine needles. This could also bring up quite a bit of dirt, which can make this task quite challenging.
If there isn’t a lot of dirt around the rocks, you shouldn’t have much of an issue with using this method.
Final thoughts
There are a few important things to keep in mind when it comes to removing pine needles stuck among rocks. First of all, how many are you dealing with?
The cleaning method that you use will partially depend on the amount of needles you need to remove from the rocks. Not all of the approaches listed above are ideal for large quantities of these needles.
If you have a leaf blower, you definitely want to use it. This will provide you with the fastest and most efficient way to get the job done. Those who do not already have a leaf blower should think about getting one because of how versatile and useful they are.
Once you are done cleaning up your pine needles, you should get rid of them as they can’t be used for composting purposes like other types of leaves.